Memories Of a Thief King
by emu FTW
Summary: It all started when I began to have dreams of being in a dessert. I dreamt I was somone else, but still me. I was called the Thief King. Crazy right? I mean stealing's wrong and I hate fighting. I couldn't be a thief, let alone a King of Thieves? Could I?


_Disclairmer - I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, if i did yugi would of have had atleast some sort of growth spurt at some point in the show!_

_/yami to hikari/_

_-hikari to yami-_

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* * *

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I'm currently in the dessert. Its night time and it's a full moon, meaning I can see for miles on end. The furthest I can see is a jagged edge in the distance which is appears to be a cliff of some sort. Around me are miles of sand. I can see a small, withering dead tree not too far from where I am. Further out I can see the place. The walls around the outside seem to hold a city inside it, with more buildings of the outside of the wall/ the inside had many layers, all walk able if you can get up there. Also, there were several really tall towers that ended with a point. Another area that caught my eye was a large open area to the side of the palace, as if it was a park of some sort but with soft sand instead of grass.

"_Step 1 completed," I whispered to myself. "Now for step two."_

_I took my leg I had been learning off the rock and stood. I don't know why but I'm half a foot taller here. I'm also tanned and wearing a skirt, which is very wired considering I know for the last 16 of my life I've been really pale, even in England. _

_That and I have never, or ever intend to, in the 16 years of my life worn a skirt .I cringe at even the thought. _

_That's another thing, when I whispered just now. I whispered in something that wasn't either English or Japanese. It sounded like Arabic. I'm not too sure but I know that I've never learnt any kind of Arabic. So why did I completely understand what I had just said._

_I stopped just off the edge of the cliff I had been standing on. Normally I would be shaking now. I can't help it, I'm scared of heights. But this time something strange is going on, I'm not scared at all. I'm existed. My hearts starts to race but that's case I have the temptation to jump off it, to see how far I could go down it before my dagger would either snap leading to my untimely death or grind to a halt, taking me hopefully far enough so I could jump to a safe distance. I found myself shaking my head._

"_Not now 'kura, stay focus" I say to myself._

_I started to peer into the city. Currently, the only main entrance I could see was the big main entrance at the front. I frowned. I knew for a fact that there were two smaller doors, one either side of the outer wall of the palace. Also, I knew for a fact that once you got over the initial wall, however you got in, there were plenty of other entrances into the palace as well as other buildings. However, that sill didn't hide the fact that there would still be guards on the inside of the palace, maybe more than there were outside._

'_So here comes step three, which entrance do I take?' I thought to myself._

_I found myself pondering for a moment. 'I may have to send in someone to get a better look round.' I thought. This was one of the few things that were similar with both the real me and this me, neither of us knew what was really inside of the palace. Then thoughts came into my head as I started to think about the situation and which way was best way to get in._

"_Thief King," came a voice from behind me. I found myself smiling at the title. Something about the title seemed to fill me with power and pride, which is kinder weird considering those are the two things I seem to never feel. But the feeling in this me seemed to reflect into me, and I felt them for the first time. The pride from the title came from the many years of practice and was one I had been proud to earn. It showed that anything could be done if you worked hard at it._

_And besides, when I meet that Ra-damned phar-_

_I tried to shut my eyes and shake my head, even though it would never work. This was getting stupid now. I know this is just a dream but it was getting out of control. All the feelings I'm feeling here almost feel like they're my own and, whoever this pharaoh was, I really did want dead. HECK! Even I, me, Ryo Bakura who hates violence just as much as Yugi, want this guy dead and revenge for something that never even happened to me!_

"_Thief King," said the voice again. This time I turned round. The man in front of me seemed to be dressed in black, which seemed strange considering we're in Egypt. "Day break will come soon and you must rest."_

_I found myself waving my hand in the air at the man to dismiss him. "I'll sleep in a minute" I said in an abrupt tone. The man bowed to me then left. I pulled a face but it didn't actually make it to my face. I've never been bowed to before. _

_I turned back to the palace and I grinned, except I wasn't a normal grin. It was a horrible grin. It was an evil malicious grin that reminded me of the sprits smile. I can't even believe it was me who was smiling._

_Soon Pharaoh," I said "soon"_

_

* * *

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"RA DAMN IT RYO! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE GONE OVER THIS" this sprit shouted at me. I shut my eyes and winced at him ranting on at me about how even though we been practicing for three days solid, I still couldn't tap into neither the power of the ring or his own dark power. I opened my eyes and faced him.

"I'm sorry but I'm really trying! I Swear!" I pleaded back to him. He growled and slouched back into my desk chair whilst I sat crossed legged on the floor, next to my bed. Currently he was snarling at my, showing all too well what I could look like I ever chose to be truly scary. I swear sometimes it even scared me to think that I could even look like.

"You don't swear damn it landlord, your too much of a wuss to swear!" he said. I smiled slightly, making sure it only lasted a second so he didn't see it. Some times, if I wasn't so scared of him, I really would laugh at him. He's been in my body for nearly over two years now, possible three, and he still didn't get modern day language. "Now try it again."

I sighed and looked down at the ring. It was useless trying to argue with him. Hopefully in the end, like that last few days, if I humour him long enough he'll give in and give up with me and will either start again tomorrow or give up all together.

I shut my eyes and tried to focus. Following what the spirit said, I blanked out all surrounding objects, from people (or in this case spirits) to normal inanimate objects like my bed and desk. The only thing that should be left is me and the duel monster card that I was trying to flip over with the rings magic. This bit was the easy bit. Well except for ignoring the people as the sprit was quite hard to ignore. I could feel him raging from a mile off due to our mind link. However recently, he's been easyer to ignore. Not sure how though, I guess I just got use to it. I found myself in a dark world alone. No sprit, no room nothing just me by myself and the duel monster card.

The next bit is when things become really hard. I slowly found myself raising my hands to either side of the ring. I left them there as if they could help me harness the power of the ring. I frowned. The sprit said I was meant to 'tap into the rings power' but I think he forgot that this isn't ancient Egypt and magic isn't quite on the school curriculum anymore. I did what I thought was right and started thinking about times shadow magic had been used, from the Sprit sending people to the shadow realm to Yugi changing into the pharaoh.

Nothing.

Easing off a bit, I let the world come floating back to be as I became aware of my surroundings again. First thing that came back was the sprit. I could feel his anger and could hear him ranting 'Ryo, you complete idiot! How can I-'…..you get the idea. Next came the ability to see a blurred world again.

I opened my eyes to a strange blurred place. It was light and I could see some kind of black splodge shouting at me. I chose to ignore it and place my hand on the ground. It was soft and at the same time rough. It's weird how contrasts can work together sometimes. I ran my hand over it a couple of times before leaning my head back. Again, it fell onto a soft surface, but this time my head seemed to sink into it. I kept it there for a while. Odd, there sure are a lot of soft things in this place, so why the black blur is is still shouting at me as if something was wrong. I hear it say 'ryo' a couple of times. I wonder what a 'ryo' is, never heard one. I found myself letting my head sink into whatever the soft thing was. It was kinder nice. The black blur seemed to calm down a bit, though it was still saying a 'ryo'. Maybe it's finally realised that there's soft things here and soft things help people to calm down and relax, kinder like cats. Cats are soft and the more you stroke them, the more you relax. Maybe I should get a cat for the black blur to help it calm down. Though I can't help but hear it still saying 'Ryo'. I wonder what a ry-

Ah

The world cleared as I shot up and looked at sprit in the face. His face was red but something seemed to be off with it. It nearly looked…..worried.

"How long-" I started to ask before he cut me off

"An hour, you really need to learn to get your mind back together faster." He said before sitting down on the chair again. I looked down and stared at the floor to my room. Everything was clear now from the carpet on the floor to my blue bed that I had been laying my head on. I hated having 'lose mind' after using the ring. It was problem that even I admit I needed to sort out or get better at.

For all who don't understand what 'lose mind' is, please let me explain. 'Lose mind' is a state of a mind when you come out of using the millennium items. It's like consuming alcohol, the more you drink, the lighter your head goes. Expect with 'lose mind', no matter how much you use the magic, you gain a complete lack of understanding of where you are, who you are or what's going on. Vision also becomes blurred so even if you do have some idea of what going on, you can't see a thing because everything is blurred.

The problem with lose mind is that you have no control over it. I mean okay maybe once, perhaps twice if you wish to push it, you can force yourself to snap back to reality (which is the sprits preferred option) but that only makes the next lose mind even longer, hence why I was out for an hour. You have to be really careful otherwise when your mind does come round, you may be missing something, as the Spirit tells me, though he never elaborates on what I'd miss. Needless to say, the more practice you have with an item, the less of a 'lose mind' you get. That's why both the Spirit and Pharaoh don't get 'lose mind's' both have been in the item and there for been using the items magic for years.

I looked up back to the Sprit; the worry on his face had left and now had kindly been replaced with shear irritation. I could see his fangs as he started to growl. That's another thing that always astounded me, how he could make me have fangs. I mean, I don't have sharp teeth like some people do. Yugi does alright, and he scared us all half to death when he showed us them to. I mean, not even Anzu saw them coming.

"Um, how did I- "

"Not even close." The Sprit grunted as he cut me off again. I sighed as the sprit leaned into my desk chair. He rubbed his hand against the temple of his head. "I honestly do not understand how you can have the millennium ring for as long as you have and still not be able to summon a single speck of shadow magic."

I found myself avoiding his gaze.

"It's like I said, I'm trying, and I really am." I found myself pleading. "I know I can ignore everything around me, I can do that bit easy. It's the summoning of magic I struggle with!"

The sprit caught me as I started to stare back at me. I held my stare at him, though I couldn't read his mind like he could do to me. Sometimes, I really do wonder what he's thinking. Currently he's looking at me emotionlessly, making it impossible to tell what he's thinking.

"I was wondering where you're going wrong." He said. "Tell me, how are you currently tapping into the rings power?" I blinked a couple of times and tried to think. Things are always a bit blurring when anyone comes out of 'lose mind', so short term memory loss is quite comment. I shut my eyes and think harder. I remember room going black, expect for me and the card; raising my hands to my chest around the ring, thinking about the shadow realm and the pharaoh.

A bitter laugh came from the sprit. I opened my eyes and saw him laughing as if I said something hilarious.

"What's so funny?" I asked, though the spirit ignored me. Instead, he kept on laughing nearly in tears. I quietly growled and found myself pouting. Not I'm not sure when I started pouting but I don't remember pouting before I met the spirit. Tapping my finger, I asked, "are you quite finished?" The spirit breathed out as he started to end his laugh.

The sprit started rubbing his eyes, still chuckling when he said "Ra Ryo, I haven't laughed that hard ever, and I'm over three thousand years old!" Then he turned to me and rubbed the final tear out of his eyes. "Ryo, is that how you really think you use shadow magic?"

I shifted uneasily. This is what I mean! He will always look into my mind when I least expected it. He will look into my mind, read it, laugh at it then taunt whatever I've thought for the rest of the week. One time he didn't stop for an entire month as he had read my mind when I was thinking about a girl I liked. I shuddered. And people wondered why I'm single?

The spirit leaned back into the chair again, smiling. Except it wasn't a nice smile, oh no it was his cocky one. Great, now he's going to insult me. I found myself frowning. "Well how am I meant to summon magic? It's not like-,"

"You're taught it in school." He finished my sentenced and glared at me. I flinched under his stare, frozen as he continued to speak. "I am aware of this landlord; however I am also aware you have been getting rather rebellious lately. Am I going to need to put you back in your place?" as soon as he said this a pain shot through my body. I grabbed my stomach and found myself on the floor, gasping for breath. Thousands of little spikes seemed to be piercing my chest, causing me to scream it in pain. I felt my eyes clasp shut and the world go black. Struggling, I tried to move my hands from my waist to my chest.

My Jaw clamped shut. Damn it! How can five little spikes cause this much pain! I felt my eyes open a squint to catch a glance at the sprit, who was laughing at me struggling. In reality, the pain is properly being done all psychologically and all in my mind; however at this right minute I really couldn't care where the pain was coming from, I just wanted it to stop.

It was only when I was starting to cry did the pain ease up. I found myself sitting there, still gasping for breath. My hands lay on my waist as I looked to the floor. I know I should really look back up to the spirit right now but physically I don't think I can. A satisfied chuckle came from the spirit.

/Now are you going to behave like a good little landlord or do I need convince you a little more?/

I couldn't answer. Too much effort was needed to keep my body supported rather than to answer. In the end I found myself nodding slightly, not even able to think my answer.

"Good, now back to the problem at hand," I heard him say. I couldn't see what he was doing but somehow I could tell he was favouring the desk now rather than my desk chair. I waited for him to start talking but he didn't. Nothing was spoken at all. Savouring the silence, I waited a minute before finally called his name.

"I'm still here, please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought it was polite to look at people when there talking?" he said aloud. Groaning, I allowed myself to fall onto my butt and learn against my bed. I was still gripping my stomach, only this time with one arm as I let the other hang loosely around my said. He laughed at me. I frowned, man I'm getting sick of this. His laugh is really annoying, more so the Marik's yami and that's saying something.

"it's all well and good complaining about my laugh but you need to remember if you insult me, your only insulting yourself." He pointed out. I groaned.

"Can we just focus at the problem at hand here?" I snapped "Why can't I use the millennium ring's power?"

He crossed his arms and leaned further in on the desk.

"For a beginner to use the millennium ring, or any item, you need to feel a particular emotion. It needs to be strong one however so that the ring can feed of that's emotions energy. Simply put 'thinking 'bout magic' won't cut it" he raised his fingers as speech marks for the last part.

"So how does think about emotions link into tapping into the rings power?" I asked. To be honest, what he was saying did kinder make sense, I'm just failing to see the link in what he had just said.

"The items are here to give the wielder whatever they wish for. If the owner is angry and seeks revenge, like me, it will happily lend its power to me as the emotion is strong." He explained. I blinked a couple of times. I still don't see how in what he has just links into tapping to the rings power but…

The spirit looked at me bluntly and said "Then explain to me how _you_ think this all links together then if you're failing to understand my logics."

"Well," I started, but I found myself stopping to gather my thoughts together. "If I was angry at someone, if the feeling was strong another, the ring would feed on this emotion and somehow I could use its power to get my revenge on them, am I correct?"

The spirit nodded. "Once you use this method a couple of times, you start to pick up on a particular sensation the ring gives off. If you can remember and replicate this feeling, then you don't really need to use your emotions any more. However, for someone like you, I think it'll be best to get angry as it'll be easier."

I let my arm drop from my waist and learned forward. The pain had now more or less subsided. I pulled a face when he said about anger. "Does the emotion have to be anger? I mean, as long as the feeling strong it shouldn't matter what the feel is, right?"

The spirit stood up and stretched. "In theory I suppose what you said is true however," he plonked himself on the chair and looked back to me "in practicality, its best to stick with anger or revenge."

I was about to ask why anger when he butted in on me again. I pouted again. Okay, I know I was going to regret this later but this was getting ridiculous. Really, I mean come! He wants me to understand this, and I know he's just reading my mind, but I would like to be able to ask a question and speak every once and a while.

Actually, scrap that. As soon as I thought that rebellious bit Sprit stopped and frowned. Instead he walked right up to me and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't take over your body right here and now and not send you soul to the darkest corner of shadow realm." He demanded. I freaked. In truth, there really wasn't, and in reality never will be a good another reason for him not to send me to the shadow realm. The only thing I could do was that he could feel my fear and would spare me.

I fell to the floor, landing on my knees.

I shook, not really taking in what he was saying. Something about a 'last straw' and how 'next time he won't let be as nice'.

/So why are you so persistent on the emotion not being anger?/ I heard him ask though our mind link. That's one this I will give the spirit credit for, that he did always find a way to talk to me. Whether it is through mind link or physically using my own mouth (which does often get me stares) he always finds away for us two to talk.

I shook my head, trying to shake some of the fear off and looked to the spirit.

"You never answered my question." I stated; trying to make sure I didn't come off as annoyed or sarcastic, just stating the obvious. The spirit shook his head.

"Actually, I did but you were too busy grovelling about me butting in. Now, why so anti anger?"

I cursed to myself. Damn it he was right, I was being stubborn and not listening.

"Can you repeat it? I'll answer your question if your do." I compromised. The spirit smirked at me.

"You'll answer my question whether I chose to repeat it or not." He said as he placed his hands into his pocket. "The reason that anger and revenge are the feelings you're more likely to feel in a situation you're going to want to use the rings power. I mean, the last thing you're going to feel as you get the crap beaten out of you is happiness now is it?"

I looked down. He had a point there; however now my end of the deal was in place there was no way I could say it without him prying in further.

"I guess…"I start, preparing myself for the worse of it. "The reason I'm struggling to get my head around using anger as the main felling is…well…." I shifted a bit. Suddenly the position I was sitting in was really uncomfortable. The Spirit shook his head and groaned.

"Landlord, if you do not tell me why you do not wish to…" he stopped and looked at me. For the first time today his face showed a different emotion. Not blank or irritation or even cockiness. No, this time it looked surprised.

"You've never been angry, have you?" he asked. I sighed. He got it right on the dot. I know it sounds weird but I couldn't help it. Whenever I've had a situation where I should be angry, I've just replaced the emotion with sadness, or if I wished to push it irritation. I've a couple of times been mad at myself but I think the spirit didn't catch onto that. Well, that or they weren't strong another emotions.

I nodded in response to the Spirit, in case he hadn't heard my thoughts. However he just seemed too kept staring at me, fascinated. It was wired to see him without a frown. He nearly looked like me if it hadn't been for the fact that his eyes were more angled than mind. That and other bits of his face were sharper than mine like chin and cheeks.

"So wait a second, you've never been mad in your life?" he blurted out, amazed. I shook my head. "Not even when I cut your arm in battle city or pierced your hand with the castle spire?" again I shook my head.

"Battle city was, and still is, a blur to me. I was confused for the whole thing and as for the spire incident; I was more determined to help save my friends than being angry with you." I explained.

"What about all your friends that I sealed away? Surely when you discovered that I was doing that you were angry?"

Again I shook my head. "Nope, I was more sad and disapointment than anger." I think I was annoyed though. I can think I call cursing at myself for letting it happen but still. I spirit looked at me with his mouth gaping open. He looked like he had been just punched in the face. He kept starting a sentence but then stopped again. In reality, his face was priceless and as before, if I wasn't scared of him I would be laughing.

"Never?" I nodded "Ever?" I nodded again. He really can't get it round his head. I mean, I guess it is weird I never been angry before but nothing has-

"What about your past life?"

…what did he just say?

"Past…life?"

"Yeah past life, as the Thief King, remember?"

A shudder went through me as he said 'Thief King'. Actually scrap that, not shudder more of a wave of something, kinder like…..no it doesn't matter.

The spirits face changed back to normal, edgy self. "Ah yes, I forgot that mere mortals can't remember their past lives." I shifted in my seat again and glared at me. I knew that look. It was that look where he's trying to read my face as if to give him a clue as to whether any of this sounds familiar.

"For the record, I also use this face to read your mind when I'm not in my sprit form." He added with a smirk. Great, thanks a bunch for that Sprit. Now, every living wakening moment of my life, as long as I have you inside of me, I'll spend it worrying that you're listening in on my conversations and thoughts knowing that whilst doing so, you shall be pulling that face. Oh crap! Did I just think that! Oh crumbs he's glaring at me. CHANGE TOPIC!

"So what was I like in my past life?" I asked quickly.

He didn't reply, just kept glaring at me. Then I started to lose control. I found myself falling onto the floor, with what support my spine gives me vanishing. My vision started to blurr as the ring began to glow along with my breathing speeding up. I felt my hand start to claw as I tried to fight for control over my body.

Shame it wasn't going my way.

"Any last words before I take over?" he asked, making me lose feeling in my arms. I felt my head go light as he made my body stand. Well, when I say stand I mean slouch.

I thought for a second before saying with a small smile, "Still not angry."

His laugh was the last thing I heard before the world went black.


End file.
